Man Grabs Trumpet to Give One Heck of a Tribute to Victims of C-130 Crash

When 15 Marines and a Navy corpsman were killed in a crash Tuesday, the military mourned, and the nation mourned along with them.

One individual’s mourning went viral, however — and its veneration captured exactly how America felt about the tragic crash.

According to Fox News, 16 service members died Monday when their KC-130 — a tanker version of the C-130 cargo plane — crashed into a Mississippi field after it “experienced a mishap” during a flight.

The plane “corkscrewed into a soybean field about 4 p.m. Monday at a location around 85 miles north of Jackson, the Marine Corps said,” Fox News reported. “The aircraft’s debris scattered in a radius of nearly 5 miles.”

The plane crashed on the side of a highway in Mississippi, and when one individual noticed that it had crashed in his location, he prepared a tribute to the fallen men by grabbing his trumpet:

Man plays Taps on the side of the highway in Mississippi to honor the 16 service members who died in Monday’s plane crash – WMC pic.twitter.com/3FxOp3Wljq

“Marine Plane crash in Mississippi is heartbreaking. Melania and I send our deepest condolences to all!” the president tweeted.

We’ve lost enough troops in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s even more heartbreaking to lose them at home, in crashes like these.

Yet, at home, they get the kind of treatment they deserve. They get it from the president and from everyday Americans like the man we just showed you.

America respects its heroes. It always has, it always will. There will always be a trumpeter on the side of a highway when tragedy strikes. No, it may not take his form of mourning, but it will always take the service of these men and women as seriously as he did — and it will make sure that our troops receive the veneration they deserve.